I agree with Sheila. It also looks like your roses are just growing in grass. Do you amend your soil? What kind of care do your roses get? Roses don't really like root competition so perhaps they might be more vigorous if you could take out the grass surrounding them and mulch them with some compost and or composted manure. While climbers do take longer to mature I would have expected a few more blooms in their second season. What varieties of roses are these by the way?

Thanks for your replies! I am very new to all of this, but have really embraced the gardening and we are now taking care of the yard ourselves. It has become even more important since we lost our beloved dog last year, as we really enjoy having a nice home for the birds in our area and find the wildlife fascinating.

This weekend we will be spreading screened organic compost that we are buying in bulk, and did the same last fall. For the summer season I can supplement the roses using my own compost. I think we have enough sun there in the spring (when he planted them), but by summer it no longer gets enough direct sun. We had planned on the fence before the roses, but after he made the suggestion I got really excited. It is hard to see, but he cut large half moons out of the grass where he planted the roses. I think they may be new dawn roses based on pictures, but I can't be sure. My husband thinks we should give them one more shot this summer, but I'm not sure if it would be better to just move them now if its hopeless.

jmackie- what state and zone are you in? Do you know what rose this is? I'm in the tri-state area zone5b. I have had good luck with David Austin 'Wedgewood' rose and Lady Ashton rose for decent hardiness. DA 'Heritage' also does well and is a short climber. None of these roses get more than about 5 hours of sun a day. Kordes 'Honeymoon' arbor rose which is stated to reach about 8 feet also does really well in these conditions. I had no winter cane dieback at all, juts broken canes form the heavy snowfall. The flowers are soft white and it flowers well. Kordes 'Rosarium Uetersen' gets rave reviews for both flowering and hardiness. Most of these roses are available as own root from RosesUnlimitedSC. DA's are available from David Austin either own root or grafted. Another source for small but very healthy plants is FreshGardenLiving on Etsy or Amazon.

I don't know if you're intending on keeping these roses or switching them out for better performers but these are some of my stellar roses that are good performers in my no-spray garden.

Sharon

jmackie,

YES, they will! They are, right now! You are seeing perfectly normal progress for climbing roses which normally have slow establishing habits, and under less than full sunlight growing conditions things go even slower.

Your husband is right, this time :-)! Give them more time than just one more summer. Be patient. All climbers take a painfully long time getting established, especially with less than full sunlight. Your climbers need more time than climbers planted in full sun.

BUT...

When your climbers reach the top, they will take off like greased lightning!...IF they are vigorous climber varieties. The sunlight will give them the shot in the arm they need. Help them along by training canes to reach the fence top.

Remember too, climbers take a longer time to get established than say, a hybrid tea.

If they are grafted they will grow a bit quicker and get a bit bigger, but own root climbing roses get to the necessary size soon enough, just a little slower at it.

What varieties are they? If they are vigorous, big climbers....no problems!

Your fence is beautiful. Your stone block edging is double beautiful. You have your climbers spaced apart excellently. You did your homework! The soil space alotted for them is fine. Their roots will spread out under the lawn...so what? No harm to them or the lawn. Just do not use weed killer in your lawn fertilizer in your climbers root zone. Actually, if you keep your lawn well maintained with new, wonder turf grasses, and mowed correctly...weed killer in turf fertilizer is not needed. A thick, healthy, properly mowed turf keeps weeds well under control all by itself.

Don't make any changes, just keep your climbers well fertilized and watered.

You will succeed with your climbing rose plan, just be patient. I guarantee it!

Moses

Hi Sharon! I am in zone 6b in Newport, RI. We are located about two blocks from the ocean if that makes a difference as well. I'm afraid I don't get 5 hours of sun in that location. I can move them, to a full sun area where the white annabel hydrangea are, but unfortunately I wouldn't see them bc of the deck furniture there. The other side of the yard is shaded by a huge tree and I don't think there is any place for them on that side.

jmackie,

You live in a storybook house! Beautiful!

Moses

Do you ever use that driveway? If you do, I'd suggest you look for something without thorns (maybe thornless roses -- look for something that tolerates some shade) to climb on your fence. New Dawn is likely to give your car some pin stripes.

Hi Jackie- Newport!! Lucky you. I love the ocean and my husband and I visits year round. We were in Newport a few weeks back, Mystic and went to the Cape.And in agreement with Moses, your house is enchanting.

Do you know which climbing rose you have? Maybe it's just not a good performer. Some fall far short of their hype. especially in New England with our short growing season.

Is scent a must? If not 'Cloud Ten' a white Knockout family climbing rose is supposed to do okay in part sun. And some DA's do well too. David Austin lists his shade tolerant roses. I had 'Teasing Georgia' in about 4 hours of sun and she did well. Sadly I lost her to voles last winter, the nasty little buggers. 'Zeprhine Drouhin' is good in shade but mine blackspotted horribly and only bloomed once a year. So off she went. 'New Dawn' is beautiful when she flowers but mine only flowered in late spring/early summer and just had a handful of sporadic blooms the rest of the summer. And yes, her thorns are wicked.

Climbers are tough here. Most suffer a lot of cane dieback over the winter so they never get very large. It's definitely trial and error but so worth it when you find a rose that is everything you hoped she'd be.

sharon

Thank you all! Until recently I have only had experience container gardening and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. The drive aisles are used for emergency parking only (and we haven't had one yet) so the thorns aren't a concern. The roses were planted two years ago, perhaps I am a bit impatient! We do have supports across the fence to hold them up. I am not concerned with scent, I am definitely going to check out some of these other varieties as well!

One last option, which was a suggestion by my husband but I'm not sure how I feel about it. He suggested drilling small holes in the fence to allow light to come through.

OK! New Dawn! That's all you needed to say. Don't worry. She'll bloom soon enough and can take this exposure, especially once she reaches the top. I might also try to stretch her horizontally to encourage laterals to grow from those main canes. My worry is that you have not allotted enough space for two of them, although it's hard to gauge the exact spacing. My 6x New Dawn will grow at least 10 feet in either direction; I recently had to transplant one to an other area as they were spaced about 5'6' apart and were a gnarly mess. I could see you training one of them to romantically fall across the garage roof. Mine has very good re-bloom, but I dead-head all the time; it's therapy for me. : ) My only suggestion is to plant a few more of a different complementary variety down the rest of the fence and over by the hydrangeas! ; )) Look into Hybrid Musks as many can be trained as climbers and they do well with shade. Not to mention they're all very pretty. Cl. Pinkie is another to consider.

I wouldn't bother drilling holes in the fence. It would have been better to have more of a picket-type, but it's done and is lovely. In fact, your entire house and yard is CHARMING... so much care went into every choice. I especially like the folding exterior doors and would appreciate any info. enough you might have on them.

P.S. You must have acidic soil to have blue hydrangeas. Lucky you! Mine are always pink. : ((

Thanks Vaporvac. My husband and I have been painstakingly renovating this house for a few years now. Without question, the 12' bifold doors we put in the kitchen are my favorite feature of the house. We had to put 3 LVLs over the header so it was a bit of work, but the result has been wonderful. These are made by Anderson and are very easy to operate, but a number of manufactures make a similar product. I will say that I don't know how they would work with a screen. We figured it would be a hassle and that we would have people and pets walking right into it so we skipped it. We don't have a problem with bugs where we are so it works for us. Actually, we do have a problem with ants in the summer, but they don't care whether there is a screen or not :-)

Perhaps you can try Zephrine Drouhin. She is a pink, very fragrant climber and does well in partial shade. She might take a few years to really establish but it's worth looking into. Hope this helps :)

I have read that Lady of the Mist is a climber that can thrive in 2 hours of sun

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1702153/does-anyone-else-grow-lady-of-the-mist?n=13

Otherwise you could cut the tree down if that is what is blocking your sun. I cut a big tree down and planted a Seiryu Japanese Maple instead which won't shade my entire yard. Now I can grow roses!

Did someone already say Madame Alfred Carriere? If New Dawn doesn't do it for you, she would be worth trying.

chey- I had ZD in my zone 5b MA garden. It blackspotted horribly and was a once bloomer with one early summer flush. It got about 5 to 51/2 hours of sun a day so decent light. The flowers were beautiful, the scent was wonderful but between the lack of bloom and the blackspot issue she was removed.

Lady Ashe, which Chamblee's has, is very hardy and flowers nicely. I had about 4 inches of winter dieback on this two year old rose. Pretty blended peachy/pink flowers with a great scent and healthy foliage. I'm not sure how she would do in less sun though. She gets about 4.5 to 5 hours. David Austin lists shade specific roses. Both 'James Galway' and 'The Generous Gardener' are listed as shade tolerant climbers. I had 'The Generous Gardener' which I also lost to voles. But it was a good performer and the scent was great.

Lady Ashe-Chamblee Rose Nursery

sharon

I hope someone comments on LA's shade tolerance. I'm desperate for a climber to go next to Lavender Lassie in a morning sun only exposure. I was planning for Ghislaine de Ferligonde, but was told after ordering she's OOS. I'm still considering planting my new Gold Blush or Phyllis Bide, but LA and now Lady of the Mist have somewhat supplanted them due to the lavender shading. Sorry to hijack and go a bit OT, but I hope this info could benefit the OP and others reading this in the future. : ))

Jmackie19, excellent info on the doors. I'll pass it a long. Last time I left mine totally opened I ended up with a possum in the kitchen and a raccoon lounging on a chair to avoid the heat.

vaporvac- Is your question about Lady Ashe? My Lady Ashe gets morning sun from about 9:30 until maybe 2ish. My garden faces due south but we have lots of mature trees, including many pines up on the hillside that shade the sun by early afternoon. She flowers nicely. Not as great as any of the posters here who have full sun but passable. She's only two years old so I'm sure age is also a factor. I had 'Compassion' which had, if I remember correctly, 4 repeats in the same location but she wasn't winter hardy. Beautiful flowers, lovely scent and healthy foliage but just too tender for my climate.

Clair Matin also flowers reliably in part sun (maybe 4 hours of midday and end of day sun) but doesn't get really tall here. Maybe 6 feet. But decent hardiness and lots of flowers and pretty healthy foliage although it does blackspot a bit.

sharon

Thank you, Sharon. My question was about LA. Good info on Compassion. It's ubiquitous in many books, but noone currently posting seems to grow her in the US. 4 repeats is great.... I wonder how hardy she'd be in my zone. Clair Matin has recently entered my brain, but I can't quite get a fix on her. The wall is ~ 13' tall, but it doesn't all have to be covered. BS is my bane, however.

vaporvac- we are listed as zone6 at agricultural charts but in winter we see 15 below at our elevation. This winter I lost Kordes South Africa, Queen of Hearts, and Plum Perfect is looking pretty sad. My Boleros also look dead. Which stinks because it's by far my favorite rose. I have a transplanted Compassion that looks like it survived the winter but it's pretty scraggly looking. It's also in a horrible spot which doesn't help.

My by far best "climber" for hardiness is Kordes Honeymoon Arbor rose. The only cane loss I had was due to winter breakage. One Lady Ashe lost one cane, the other one looks really good.

sharon

My Boleros are also a shell, but hopefully alive. Thanks for the heads up on SA. I've been thinking about cancelling that one from my ARE order and now I think I will. Does Honeymoom drop its petals cleanly?

vaporvac- I can't remember if Honeymoon drops its petals cleanly.

sharon

Update: My roses have grown quite a bit this season and I have some beautiful blooms!

yay!!

sharon

I am so happy to hear and see that! They already look so beautiful. You've done a really good job training them and will probably see some new basil growth this year. They don't have much more to go to reach the lattice.

Thanks! One of the canes (on the far left) has already reached the bottom of the lattice and it is loaded with buds. But I'm not sure why it is "bald" in one section. I have that on another one as well, one stretch of a cane that has barely any leaves on it?

They may push out those laterals on the second round of flowers. Mine are doing that now. Pulling them or horizontal can also help, but yours look pretty good actually. Now that I'm looking more closely I can see that one has already reached the lattice. That's fabulous! I love this Rose. As you can see it's my avatar. I also grow its sport Awakening which is just the same but double.

Jmackie,

I told you so! They are fantastic! Good job. I hope you are enjoying them in the flesh as much as I am just looking at your photo. Whatever you are doing, just keep doing it! You have a paradise situation there, with your lovely home and garden.

Climbers usually thin out at their bottom half. That's normal. You can train canes almost parallel to the ground as low as a foot off the ground, but their best flowering and most vigorous growth is up high.

One bit of advice. When fertilizing your lawn, no weed killer ingredient in the fertilizer in the strip of grass between the stone block curbs. I am referring to photo #2 on your April 13th. post. You do not want your climbers' roots taking up weed killer.

Also, what is growing on the other side of your climbers? If there is a possibility of weed killer being applied on the soil/grass there, within the root zone of your roses, you may want to look into a way of preventing that possibility from happening.

Moses

Yes, Moses! You were definitely right. And we have been really enjoying them, they bring a romantic vibe to the whole yard.

I have never used weed killer on my yard. I was just topressing the yard with compost but for the first time this spring I fertilized with Espoma all season fertilizer. I hand pull the weeds but it is a good point about whats going on the other side of the fence. I guess how would I prevent the weed killer from going to my roses unless I ask my neighbors not to apply it?!

Jmackie,

Good lawn fertilizer, Espoma. Compost top dressing....Bravo! Once your turf thickens up, and you mow it at the right height for the breeds of grass in it, weeds will disappear, being choked out.

First determine what is growing next door in the root zone of your climbers. If flower beds, I believe you are OK. If a shrub border, I believe the chance of weed killer being applied is slim.

If lawn, perhaps recommend a non-herbicide fertlizer, explaining the negativ environmental impact of herbicides. Explain your situation to them with the roses.

They should be delighted to see you beautify your property, and cooperate. It raises THEIR property value as well as yours, at your expense, effort, and time. Your neighbors may not even fertilize their lawn, so it could be a non-issue.

BTW Milorganite (6-4-0), is better than Espoma (8-0-0), and at considerably less cost. Arnold, my brother's brother in law, used Milorganite on his lawn, 3 times a year: early spring, early summer, and fall, at my recommendation.

He blessed me up and down for the rich, green, thick lawn he soon grew, cheaply, and safe for his children and dogs. He also overseeded his original horrible lawn with a blend of modern, improved fescues and perennial rye, no Kentucky blue grass, at my insistence, too. Then mowed it in spring at 2.5" and then for the summer at 3", every year the same. With the improved overseeded grasses and Milorganite, the lawn was the envy of his neighbors who all had professional lawn services, but every July-August their lawns would go dormant, and brown up while Arnold's stayed rich and thick green with no watering other than rainfall.

Moses